Kuzul

After their first 40 games, the Oakland A's are 20-20 in the 2013 season.Remember 2012? The A's started 20-20 as well. In 2006, The A's—led by Frank Thomas—rode a five-game winning streak to get to 21-19 after 40 games. Historically, the A's have tended to be a slow-starting team. Under manager Bob Geren, the club never started better than 23-17 through 40 games (2008) and started as slowly as 15-25 (2009) while opening 20-20 three times. Go back to the Moneyball era when the A's opened 21-19 (2000), 18-22 (2001) and 19-21 (2002) after 40 games. Oakland went on to win 91, 102, and 103 games those three seasons, respectively.In many ways, the 12-4 start that the Athletics have raced out to this season was a bit of fool's gold. Eleven of those 12 wins came at the expense of AL West foes Seattle, Los Angeles (Angels) and Houston. Those teams sit a combined ...

Say what you will, but Billy Beane is not averse to making decisive moves. Adding guys like John Jaso and Jed Lowrie may not be as sexy as Josh Hamilton, but the Oakland Athletics have further addressed offseason deficiencies with their moves. With Lowrie in the fold, the A's now have someone with real Major League pop to fill in voids all over the infield. That means players like Eric Sogard and Adam "Skolnick" Rosales have less at-bats in meaningful situations. I like them both, but neither should be hitting more than 70 times a year in the big leagues. The reality is, the A's were not far away last year and the two biggest holes in the lineup have been addressed with a trio of potentially big time upgrades in Jaso, Lowrie, and Hiro Nakajima. Yes, losing Chris Carter has the potential to take home runs away from the lineup. As ...

Last year, the Oakland A's went on a run for the ages, and they almost snuck into the ALCS.The A's won their last six regular season games to stunningly capture the AL West, before rallying from down 2-0 to force Game 5 of the ALDS. They lost Game 5, but it let Oakland experience a run for the ages.However, the A's haven't done much in the offseason. They signed Hiroyuki Nakajima from Japan, but only to replace Stephen Drew. They re-signed Bartolo Colon and traded for Chris Young, but that's really been it.Oakland isn't expected to do as well in 2013 because of their lack of big names. However, the offensive went on a home run spree in the second half, and while Brandon Moss won't be smashing 21 homers in 265 at-bats, he, Josh Reddick and Yoenis Cespedes could provide pop for the middle of the lineup.Crisp and Nakajima ...

Having accomplished so much during the regular season as a team, the Oakland A's received an individual accolade today as Josh Reddick was named a 2012 Rawlings Gold Glove award winner. Reddick's award capped a great season where the unheralded right fielder emerged as a legitimate power hitter and two-way player for the AL West champion A's.Reddick's win represents the first for an Oakland outfielder since Dwayne Murphy won for his defensive play in 1985. The last Oakland defender to be recognized at any position was former third baseman Eric Chavez after the 2006 season. In 2012, Reddick compiled 15 assists, the most by an Athletics outfielder in 29 years, tied for third most in Oakland history. He ranked third among American League outfielders in assists and was tied for fifth in double plays for outfielders with three. Buoyed by Reddick, the A's turned the outfield from a position of weakness in ...

Mike Trout will, in all likelihood, win the 2012 American League MVP Award.With just 118 games under his belt in his rookie season, Trout leads the American League with a .328 batting average and 45 stolen bases. He owns a .393 OBP which is third overall in the AL, second in OPS with .963 and his .570 slugging percentage is third behind Josh Hamilton and Miguel Cabrera.Needless to say, the kid is in good company.Beyond that, he has 27 home runs, 23 doubles and six triples in his 158 hits.According to Fangraphs, he has a 8.6 WAR rating, while Baseball Reference puts him at a 10.2 WAR.The evidence is there. Trout is very deserving of the MVP award. However, there are other players that have been playing incredible baseball this season in the AL that should not be overlooked.Here is a tip of the cap to those players.Begin Slideshow

In a year where Josh Reddick was arguably ousted from the American League All-Star team, Oakland Athletics fans can eat the chip on their shoulders—as the right fielder did against his former employer.  Reddick was named American League player of the week due in large part to his first career grand slam against Bobby Valentine's struggling Red Sox in the 20-2 massacre in Oakland.  The Athletics' OF accounted for four home runs, 10 RBI, 12 hits and scored six times over their flawless week that left the Red Sox and Cleveland Indians winless against Oakland.  The American League is no cakewalk for top-notch player-of-the-week contenders.  Reddick prevailed over the likes of other AL standouts such as Texas Rangers' Josh Hamilton and Adrian Beltre, and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s Mike Trout—ever heard of them?  Not only did Reddick produce on the offensive front, but also made the replay reel for ...

When people mention the name of Oakland A's general manager, Billy Beane, many adjectives follow: Overrated, brilliant, shrewd and ring-less are a few. And while there are those who may never give Beane the credit he deserves for having built a solid small-market playoff contender during the 2000s, the job he has done in 2012 simply cannot be overstated.Understand, the A's were simply supposed to be a bad rebuilding team working towards a new stadium in Oakland or elsewhere. It was expected that their nucleus would not be solidified until at least 2014, and this was supposed to be the year when the bottom finally fell out completely to allow the A's to reload through the MLB Draft like the Washington Nationals and Tampa Bay Rays.Instead, the Oakland A's sit on top of the American League Wild Card and a mere four games from the top of the AL West standings. ...

As the 2012 MLB season trickles down to the final stretch, a handful of teams are seeking playoff berths, while others seek vacation destinations following game 162. For the first time since 2006, the Oakland Athletics are putting their postseason paradises on hold. Oakland's midseason surge peaked in July during the 19-5 stint and has yet to fully subside. Boasting a 31-14 record since the All-Star Break break, Bob Melvin's Athletics have patched up their 2012 season quilt with variations of miscellaneous fabrics—and boy, is it warm. Following the series-opening 20-2 demolition of the Boston Red Sox, the A's preserve the top spot in the AL wild card race in front of the Baltimore Orioles on the shoulders of these second-half standouts. Begin Slideshow

Do not be fooled by the logjam in the American League Wild Card standings.Although there are five teams within 2.5 games of each other for that Wild Card play in game, in reality this is about three teams: the Detroit Tigers, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Tampa Bay Rays.That is all you see on the sports networks; that is all you hear on the radio. Except there are still 38 games to play for the surprising Oakland A's, who have managed to win in ways that would surprise even the most faithful fan, still just 0.5 games out of those standings. Like the other surprise team in this picture (Baltimore), the A's face a daunting September schedule that looms as a potential derailment on the playoff train.That said, the A's fortunes will largely hinge on how much of a cushion they can give themselves as they embark on ...

It is certainly a bit of a misnomer to use the term "underpaid" when discussing professional baseball players. With a new league minimum salary of $480,000, even the sixth outfielder and the lefty specialist make more annually than the President of the United States. Make no mistake—if you're talented enough to catch the eye of a big league team, you have the chance to become better paid than the majority of Americans. The league minimum is nothing to sneeze at, but the league average is a tick above $3 million—a paycheck most of us would be hard-pressed to complain about. Of course, all players—and all player contracts—are not created equal. They are frequently based on past performance and hope to approximate future performance, an inexact science at best. It is not uncommon for aging players to perform significantly worse in the final years of their contracts than they did when they first ...